Yintah is a Canadian film, releasing on 18th October on Netflix. It is directed by Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell and Michael Toledano. It stars Freda Huson and Molly Wickham. The film revolves around the Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation and their fight to protect traditional lands from pipeline developments.
Initially, the film got released at the True/False Film Festival in March 2024. Later, it had its Canadian premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and won the Rogers Audience Award. It also got mentioned for the Colin Low Award and the Elevate Award at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival. This award-winning plot has raised the excitement level and viewers want to know whether the movie is based on a real-life story or if it is based on a novel or a book.
Is Yintah based on a true story?
The answer to this question is yes. Yintah is a documentary film, inspired from the real incidents that took place on the Wet’suwet’en territory. Yintah which means ‘land, is a feature-length documentary about the fight for sovereignty. It revolves around the long fight to protect children, culture, and land from colonial violence.
The directors of the movie shared about the Netflix release of the movie and said, “The world needs to know the truth of what took place on Wet’suwet’en territory — how a determined community stood at gunpoint to protect Wet’suwet’en lands from theft. We’re thrilled that Netflix has decided to champion this story.”
The Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation is a band located outside of the village of Burns Lake, British Columbia, Canada. Two Wet’suwet’en leaders Howilhkat Freda Huson and Sleydo’ Molly Wickham reclaimed their ancestral lands by reoccupying their territory and protected it from some of the largest fossil fuel companies in the world by resisting the construction of multiple pipelines.
The directors of the movie said, “Mirroring the scope and ambition of the Wet’suwet’en fight to protect un-surrendered lands from theft, Yintah offers the definitive account of a historic wave of Indigenous resistance to Canadian colonialism. Drawing from more than a decade of verity footage, the film shadows two Wet’suwet’en leaders as they reoccupy and protect their homelands in the face of state violence.”